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I have now harvested 70% of my garlic, the remaining being Music with a few more days to go. These are about two weeks earlier than normal, probably due to our unusually warm winter and spring. I have them curing on my covered porch, with tables arranged to block wind blown rain, and a fan on a timer to help air circulation (although being on a ridge at 2,600 ft. elevation we are breezy enough).

The crop is larger than normal, with most bulbs 2.5 inches plus and some over 3 inches. The first garlic photo below is Russian Red (marked "R"), the second is Estonian Red (marked "EST"), and the third is Music (marked "M"). Once cured I will brush them clean, trim them, and store in my cellar.

I reserve the largest 100 bulbs for seed, another 100 bulbs for a friend, 50-100 for use in canning, and the remaining 200 for table stock throughout the year. I am still eating the last dozen bulbs from last year's smaller crop.

Nice bounty. What do you think resulted in the larger than normal size?
I don't mean to thread hike, but I am listening to the forecast and getting concerned about my raised bed garlic. The tops dried down but I was unable to harvest. Now there is a dry heatwave forecast for the next 10 days.Does anyone know what will be the result of keeping garlic in the ground during very hot weather?

Nice bounty. What do you think resulted in the larger than normal size?
I don't mean to thread hike, but I am listening to the forecast and getting concerned about my raised bed garlic. The tops dried down but I was unable to harvest. Now there is a dry heatwave forecast for the next 10 days.Does anyone know what will be the result of keeping garlic in the ground during very hot weather?

- Lisa

The better crop was likely due to better soil in this year's bed. I moved the garlic to last year's tomato bed because a walnut tree was too close to this area and was killing some tomato plants last year. I had the soil tested and the pH was 6.6 and all nutrients were very high, with 8.4% organics. This was my new wife's late husband's garden and he amended the soil every year. Previous garlic beds were not as rich.

If your tops are dried down you need to pull them or you'll have no wrappers. I harvest when there re four mostly green leaves left as each leaf extends under ground and is also a wrapper layer. As a leaf browns its wrapper is lost. Hot and dry weather is ideal for harvesting garlic so long as you still have some green leaves.

Those look great! My harvest was two weeks earlier than usual this year, but I probably could have left them one more week. They were predicting rain for the next three days I would have been free to harvest, so I decided to just pull them all while I had time and conditions were right. They are still larger and healthier than what I've been getting the last couple of years, so all in all a very successful year for garlic for me as well.

Let's hope the successful garlic harvests set the tone for the rest of the season!